March 2002 Instructor, page 73, Math & The Cosmos

March 2002 Today's Catholic Teacher, pg. 63 Math & The Cosmos 

Children's Software Revue

 

Math & the Cosmos

Rating Scale  
4.8 --5.0       Outstanding
4.3 - 4.7       Very good
3.8 - 4.2       Good
3.3 - 3.7       Poor

Rating 4.3

Part of a series called "A Bigger World", this is a well-designed set of tutorials that serves as an integrated study of astronomy and its connections to mathematics. Each tutorial is presented in the form of a narrated slide show, with mini-lectures illustrating each key concept , a series of application questions and a final quiz. After signing in, students first see a main menu, where they click on an object on a desk. There are a total of six topics to choose from, each with with its own set of tutorials: Star Charts, Angles, Motion, Distance, Graphs and Scientific Notation. Students will learn about graphing star charts, planetary motion, parallax, the motion of the sun, Newton's Laws and much more. The program is packed with content and the design makes it easy to zero in on a specific subject for remediation or practice. Also nice is the record keeping, which tracks progress for each student. The program features a good, clean interface that is easy to use, and would be ideal for a home school or classroom setting. The only downfall is passivity; we often wished for more interactivity.

Date of Review

12/10/2001

Teaches

Science, Astronomy, Math